英語(yǔ)世界文摘:A Hero Reborn: “China’s Tolkien” Aims to Conquer Western Readers

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A Hero Reborn: “China’s Tolkien” Aims to Conquer Western Readers

英雄重生：“中國(guó)的托爾金”意在征服西方讀者

The world’s most popular kung fu fantasy series is finally set to become a UK bestseller.

全世界最受歡迎的武俠系列小說(shuō)終于將成為英國(guó)暢銷(xiāo)書(shū)。

By Vanessa Thorpe

文/瓦妮莎·索普

Guo Jing, a young soldier among the massed ranks of Genghis Khan’s army and son of a murdered warrior, may soon become as familiar a questing literary figure as Frodo Baggins from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, or Jon Snow from Game of Thrones. In fact, this Chinese fighting hero is already part of phenomenon[1] that can match both of those epics in size. For the books of Guo Jing’s creator, the author known as Jin Yong, have already sold more than 300m copies.

郭靖是成吉思汗大軍眾多將士中的一名小兵，其父也是一名勇士，但慘遭殺害，他可能很快就會(huì)像托爾金小說(shuō)《魔戒》里的弗羅多·巴金斯或《權(quán)力的游戲》中的瓊恩·雪諾一樣，成為人們熟知的探險(xiǎn)文學(xué)人物。其實(shí)，這位中國(guó)武俠英雄所創(chuàng)造的轟動(dòng)效應(yīng)可與那兩部史詩(shī)巨著匹敵。而塑造郭靖這個(gè)角色的作家金庸的著作銷(xiāo)量已經(jīng)達(dá)到3億多冊(cè)。

[1] phenomenon 非凡的人（或事物）。

The world’s biggest kung fu fantasy writer, Jin Yong enjoys huge popularity in the Chinese-speaking world. In the west, however, his name is barely the world he has created and the puzzle that has posed for translators.

作為全球最知名的武俠小說(shuō)作家，金庸在華語(yǔ)世界享有很高的人氣。然而，他的名字在西方幾乎不為人知，主要是因?yàn)樗麡?gòu)建的武俠世界紛繁復(fù)雜，給譯者帶來(lái)了難題。

Now, for the first time, the beginning of his extraordinarily popular series, Legends of the Condor Heroes, has been translated into English for a mainstream readership. It is a task that has already defeated several translators, yet Anna Holmwood, 32, from Edinburgh has managed it – or at least the first volume. Her British publisher, MacLehose Press, plans a 12-volume series, with Holmwood’s first volume, A Hero Born, due out in February.

現(xiàn)在，他深受歡迎的系列小說(shuō)的開(kāi)篇之作《射雕英雄傳》首次被譯成英語(yǔ)，呈獻(xiàn)給主流讀者。這個(gè)任務(wù)已經(jīng)難倒了幾位譯者，而來(lái)自愛(ài)丁堡、32歲的郝玉青解決了這個(gè)難題，至少她譯出了第一卷。她在英國(guó)的出版商麥克萊霍斯出版社計(jì)劃分12卷發(fā)行這部小說(shuō)，將于2月出版郝玉青翻譯的第一卷《英雄出世》。

Agent Peter Buckman, who sold the rights to the series to the publisher, came across the works almost by chance as he searched the internet for “bestselling authors”. “Jin Yong was in the top 10, though I’d never heard of him; nor did I read Chinese,” he said this weekend.

版權(quán)經(jīng)紀(jì)人彼得·巴克曼將該系列小說(shuō)的版權(quán)賣(mài)給了這家出版商，他在網(wǎng)上搜索“暢銷(xiāo)作家”時(shí)很偶然地發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些作品。巴克曼在本周末說(shuō)：“金庸名列前十位，可是我從未聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)他，我也不認(rèn)識(shí)中文?！?

Comparisons with Tolkien or George RR Martin might sound overblown, but in and around China, Jin Yong’s works are classics, loved like fairytales or national legends.

將金庸與托爾金或喬治·R.R.馬丁相提并論，可能聽(tīng)起來(lái)言過(guò)其實(shí)，但是在中國(guó)和周邊國(guó)家和地區(qū)，金庸小說(shuō)都是經(jīng)典作品，像童話(huà)故事或民族傳說(shuō)一樣深受喜愛(ài)。

“These books are read by so many Chinese people when they are teenagers, and the work really stays in their heads,” Holmwood told the Observer. “So, of course, I felt a great weight of responsibility in translating them – and even more as publication draws near.”

“很多中國(guó)人在青少年時(shí)代就讀過(guò)這些小說(shuō)，這部作品深深地留在他們的腦海里。”郝玉青接受《觀(guān)察家報(bào)》采訪(fǎng)時(shí)說(shuō)，“當(dāng)然，我在翻譯這些作品的時(shí)候感到責(zé)任重大，離出版日期越近感到責(zé)任越大。”

Set in China in 1200, A Hero Born tells of an empire close to collapse. Under attack from the Jurchen Jin dynasty, the future of the entire Chinese population rests in the hands of a few lone martial arts exponents. A novel in the wuxia, or fighting hero, tradition, it was written under the pen name Jin Yong by Chinese journalist, Louis Cha Leungyung. A founding editor of the Hong Kong daily newspaper Ming Pao, in the 1950s he put together a set of stories charting the progress of a young martial arts fighter during the Song dynasty and serialised them. The plots were fictional but the historical background was real.

《英雄出世》以公元1200年的中國(guó)為背景，講述了宋朝走向衰亡的故事。面對(duì)女真金國(guó)的進(jìn)攻，中原全體大宋子民的未來(lái)都掌握在幾個(gè)修煉獨(dú)門(mén)絕技的武林高手手中。這本沿襲武俠傳統(tǒng)的小說(shuō)出自以“金庸”為筆名的中國(guó)記者查良鏞筆下。20世紀(jì)50年代，創(chuàng)辦香港日?qǐng)?bào)《明報(bào)》并擔(dān)任主編的金庸撰寫(xiě)故事在報(bào)上連載，描寫(xiě)了宋朝少年俠士練就絕世武功的過(guò)程，后將這些故事集結(jié)成冊(cè)，出版了系列小說(shuō)。這些情節(jié)是虛構(gòu)的，可是歷史背景卻是真實(shí)的。

They became the biggest Chinese publishing hit of the last century. Cha, who is now 93 and lives in seclusion, created a vast imaginary world over 15 novels, which spawned[2] films, games, comics and television shows.

這些小說(shuō)成為上世紀(jì)中國(guó)出版界最受歡迎的作品。93 歲的金庸如今隱居世外，他撰寫(xiě)的15部小說(shuō)創(chuàng)造了波瀾壯闊的虛幻世界，由此改編成多部電影、游戲、漫畫(huà)和電視劇。

[2] spawn 大量生產(chǎn)。

Buckman bought the rights and sold them on to a British publisher after meeting Holmwood and discovering how little of the series was available in English. “Anna did a sample chapter of the first of the Condor Heroes books and I sent it out to various publishers. My old friend Christopher MacLehose, who specialises in translated masterpieces, had discovered from a Chinese friend how Jin Yong’s work was like Simenon’s is to the French or Tolstoy’s to the Russians – a part of the common culture, with one generation of readers passing on their enthusiasm to the next,” he said.

巴克曼與郝玉青見(jiàn)面后，發(fā)現(xiàn)該系列小說(shuō)的英文譯本極少，于是買(mǎi)下小說(shuō)版權(quán)并賣(mài)給一家英國(guó)出版商。他說(shuō)：“郝玉青試譯了《射雕英雄傳》系列第一卷的章節(jié)，我把譯文寄給了多位出版商。我的老朋友克里斯托弗·麥克萊霍斯專(zhuān)門(mén)從事名著英譯本的出版，他從一位中國(guó)朋友那里得知，金庸小說(shuō)猶如西姆農(nóng)的作品之于法國(guó)人，或是托爾斯泰的著作之于俄羅斯人，已經(jīng)成為共同文化的一部分，讓一代又一代讀者為之癡迷?！?

Although there have been academic translations published over a decade ago, including an edition of The Deer and the Cauldron translated by John Minford, attempts to tackle the wider work have been abandoned. Holmwood, who studied Chinese at Oxford University, first discovered the book in Taipei and later moved to Hangzhou, in east China, while she worked on her translation.

盡管十多年前出版過(guò)金庸小說(shuō)的學(xué)術(shù)譯著，其中包括漢學(xué)家閔福德翻譯的《鹿鼎記》，后來(lái)又有多次嘗試翻譯更多金庸作品，但這些嘗試都半途而廢了。郝玉青在牛津大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)中文，她在臺(tái)北發(fā)現(xiàn)了這本書(shū)，后來(lái)搬到中國(guó)華東地區(qū)的杭州，其間一直從事翻譯工作。

Fellow translators are now being drafted in to help with the task, but the challenge facing all of them is to faithfully represent the kung fu moves along with the Chinese philosophies and religions that are all woven through the plot. Even the fighting skill of the warrior in A Hero Born, for instance, which literally translate as “the 18 palm attacks to defeat dragons”, is in fact derived from a Taoist classic ascribed to[3] Lao Tzu, dating from 2,500 years ago, and has a strong philosophical element in addition to movement.

她也請(qǐng)來(lái)其他譯者幫助完成這項(xiàng)任務(wù)，可是他們面臨的挑戰(zhàn)是如何忠實(shí)地表現(xiàn)功夫動(dòng)作以及貫穿整個(gè)劇情的中國(guó)哲學(xué)和宗教。比如說(shuō)，《英雄出世》中郭靖的絕世武功按字面翻譯成“降龍十八掌”，實(shí)際上是源于2500年前老子的道家經(jīng)典，除了武功招式以外，還蘊(yùn)含濃厚的哲學(xué)意味。

[3] ascribe to 把……歸于。

“I am of the belief that a lot of readers like a bit of a challenge as they go along,” said Holmwood, who now lives in Malm?, Sweden, with her Taiwanese husband and son. “That is why fans of Lord of the Rings try to learn Elvish. So I don’t explain everything, although I have written a very short prologue to introduce some of the elements of the story.”

郝玉青和她的臺(tái)灣丈夫及兒子現(xiàn)住在瑞典馬爾默，她說(shuō)：“我認(rèn)為，很多讀者在閱讀中喜歡些許挑戰(zhàn)，這也是《魔戒》書(shū)迷設(shè)法學(xué)習(xí)精靈語(yǔ)的原因。所以我沒(méi)有解釋所有的細(xì)節(jié)，不過(guò)我寫(xiě)了篇很短的序言來(lái)介紹小說(shuō)的部分內(nèi)容?！?